Chapter Three: What Your Boss Really Wants from You

Overview

Your job as a programmer is to keep your boss prosperous and happy ”particularly with you.

Your boss wants to get promoted. At the very least, he wants to be prosperous, happy, and well liked in his current management position as he searches for the next step up or out.

Your job as a programmer is to keep him prosperous and happy ” particularly with you. Your work can have a decided impact on his career: Your programming skill could help get him an impressive promotion, your ineptitude could cause him to crash and burn.

To your first working meeting with your programming manager you should bring a creative mind (your coding ability and experience are givens) and the energy to apply that creativity with consistent zeal. That s all you need.

Well, almost all you need. You also need ”but probably don t have ”an understanding of what your manager expects of you and how he will measure your performance.

Here s what your boss wants from you.